Halloween weekend saw near perfect weather, and I had previously reserved a room at Wuksachi Lodge. Saturday I hiked from Wolverton to Heather Lake via the Watchtower, returning by the Hump.

The watchtower. I didn't see Tokopah falls going, but I heard some water coming from somewhere, so the rains have had some impact.

From the watchtower, looking east, up the Marble Fork Kaweah:

Heather Lake. I've seen it before, but not without snow.

On Sunday, the view from Moro Rock looking up towards the Great Western Divide. There seems to be a fair bit of bark-beetle damage in this valley, but not nearly as extensive as along CA-180 around the 5000 ft. level heading up (most trees were damaged there!).

And, Moro Rock:

There was a fair bit of green grass in the lower elevation area near the Ash Mountain entrance, it appears the southern CA rains in October must have reached this area. Similar altitudes driving over Pacheco Pass near the Bay Area are completely brown.

As Chick-on said, we missed several backpacking trips there, but even worse for a different circle of friends and family, two annual camping trips had to be cancelled as well!!! Sniff...

Well, thank you again for sharing and reminding me how lovely it is there!

Be well!

Adding: 1) great to see clear blue sky!!!

2) Did u do the watchtower after the rockfall not too many years ago? We had to take our packs off and push them ahead of us and crawl through. My knees did not like that!! I can't recall when that was... Thankfully cleared up now!

We love to go in winter.. but we go with friends with kids and we end up tooling about with them in the snow play area most of the time. But we usually take a day to go snowshoe through the Giant Forest. The last few winters, though, we've had dry hiking and summer-like conditions, so we covered a LOT of ground... Have yet to do the Hump trail!